Say What? March 20th, 2012 Edition [Reader Post]

President Barack Obama: “So do not tell me that we’re not drilling. We’re drilling all over this country. There are a few spots we’re not drilling. We’re not drilling in the national mall. We’re not drilling at your house.”

President Obama: “(W)e have made progress, with imports of foreign oil decreasing by a million barrels a day in the last year alone. Our focus on increased domestic oil and gas production, currently at an eight year high, combined with the historic fuel economy standards we put in place, means that we will continue to reduce our nation’s vulnerability to the ups and downs of the global oil market.”

President Barack Obama on Republican energy proposals “Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians talking down these new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power and solar power. They make jokes about biofuels and electric cars. They were against raising fuel standards because apparently they like gas guzzling cars better. We’re trying to move towards the future, and they want to keep us stuck in the past. Of course, we’ve heard this kind of thinking before. If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society. They would not have believed that the world was round.” The ancient Greeks not only knew that the world was round, but they knew the circumference. I am unclear as to what middle ages Spaniards thought, but I don’t think they believed the world to be flat. However, several things I do know: oil is the fuel of today; algae is not; increasing our tire inflation will not be a sufficient substitute for drilling; and, whereas developing new resources for energy is a good thing, Obama using this excuse to give money to his donors is not.

President Barack Obama: “The biggest driver of these high gas prices is speculation about possible war in the Middle East, which is why we’ve been trying to reduce some of the loose talk about war there.”

President Obama: “Change is the decisions we made to stop waiting for a Congress to do something about our oil addiction and finally raised fuel efficiency standards on our cars and on our trucks so that by next decade we will be driving American made cars that get 55 miles per gallon.” Or, GM (government-mandated) cars that catch on fire, drive about 40 miles on a battery charge, and the government pays you $10,000 to buy one, and still cannot sell enough of them to continue production.

President Obama in his weekly address: “Hi, everybody. As I’m sure you’ve noticed over the past few weeks, the price at your local pump has been going up and up. And because it’s an election year, so has the temperature of our political rhetoric. What matters most to me right now is the impact that rising prices have on you…It’s easy to promise a quick fix when it comes to gas prices. There just isn’t one. Anyone who tells you otherwise – any career politician who promises some three-point plan for two-dollar gas – they’re not looking for a solution…But we can’t just rely on drilling. Not when we use more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but still only have 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves…But what we can’t do is keep being dependent on other countries for our energy needs.” He also explains all of the reasons for the price being so high. Unrest in the middle east, oil speculators, and, of course, so-called government subsidies to big oil. And, again, he claims his raising of the fuel standards will be the key. Inflation, the rapidly falling dollar, and limited production in the United States; those didn’t really enter into his address.

The President seems to think he is more like Lincoln than any of the Republican candidates. Barack Obama: “[Lincoln] understood that we are a people that take great pride in our self-reliance and our independence but that we are also one nation and one people, and that we rise or fall together. So I hope that while my counterparts on the other side enjoy the outstanding hospitality of the people of Illinois and spend some money here to promote our economy, I hope they also take a little bit of time to reflect on this great man, the first Republican President.”

President Obama on Oprah: “And she has continued to be just – not just a friend, but somebody who Michelle and I seek out in thinking about not just the day to day issues of the day but trying to keep our focus on the big picture.”

President Obama: “It gets you a little nervous about what is happening to global temperatures. When it is 75 degrees in Chicago in the beginning of March, you start thinking. On the other hand, I really have enjoyed nice weather.”

Obama, who usually only rips Bush: “One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: `It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?’ That’s why he’s not on Mt. Rushmore. He’s looking backwards, he’s not looking forward. He’s explaining why we can’t do something instead of why we can do something. The point is there will always be cynics and naysayers.” Hayes thought the telephone was a great invention.

President Obama, when asked about waging a “war on religion”: “I find this very puzzling, because my first job, my first real job out of college, was working with churches in low-income communities, trying to make sure that the social gospel was made real, that people were getting help.” The social gospel is what “Christians” preach when they do not understand the gospel of the Bible (that Jesus Christ died for our sins).

Joe Biden: “Simply stated, we’re about promoting the private sector. They’re about protecting the privileged sector. We are for a fair shot and a fair shake; they’re about no rules, no risks and no accountability. If you give any one of these guys the keys to the White House, they will bankrupt the middle class again.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney, when asked about the amount of time the President spends fund raising and campaigning: “I still maintain that the president is still spending a vast preponderance of his time on his official duties. As is everyone who works here.” The president has gone to over 100 fund-raising events, which is pretty much double what any other previous president has done in the same mount of time.

Vice President Joe Biden of Obama choosing to okay the mission to kill Osama bin Laden: “This guy’s got a backbone like a ramrod.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron: “Barack understands that the means matter every bit as much as the ends. Yes, America must do the right thing but to provide moral leadership America must do it in the right way too. The first president I studied in school was Theodore Roosevelt. He talked of speaking softly and carrying a big stick. That is Barack‘s approach, and in following it he has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world.”

Former FBI most wanted Bill Ayers: “I think the people who practice white supremacy and who benefit from it are going to have to be stopped. And I think that’s a huge undertaking and I think it takes a revolution.”

HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, answering a question to a middle school audience, after showing a Cartoon Network film not to call call people names like “stupid,” “fat,” and “jerk”: “I think, very important, is for kids to understand how powerful you really are. You might feel like you’re not big enough, not strong enough, not–don’t have enough tools. But just saying, `Stop it! You know, you’re being a jerk!’–walk away, get away from this person can make a huge amount of difference.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of a new CBS News and New York Times survey finding that 80% of Americans are not better off financially than they were four years ago: “I’m not much of a pollster guy…I think this poll is so meaningless. It is trying to give the American people an idea of what 300 million people feel by testing several hundred people. I think the poll is flawed in so many different ways including a way that questions were asked. I don’t believe in polls generally and specifically not in this one.” Unless he agrees with the poll; then he believes in it.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka of President Obama: “With our endorsement today, we affirm our faith in him – and pledge to work with him through the election and his second term to restore fairness, security and shared prosperity.”

Ed Schultz: “The root of this problem [saying that Obama is a Muslim] is at the doorstep of the McCain campaign from 2008. You don’t have to look any farther than the recent HBO movie ‘Game Change’ which premiered over the weekend to see how this whole fire started to rage.” It was the Hillary campaign which circulated the photo of Obama in Muslim garb. At no time, did the McCain campaign attack Obama for religious reasons or suggest that he was a Muslim. Even Reverend Wright was declared off limits.

Rahm Emanuel, when asked about Bill Maher’s vicious comments, which people found as insulting as Limbaugh‘s: “I thought what Rush Limbaugh said was . . . absolutely not only wrong, it was absolutely repulsive…if you can’t stand up to Rush, how are you going to stand up to Russia?”

Rep. Shelley Berkley: “This has nothing to do with the First Amendment. I am merely asking Clear Channel to make a business decision to get somebody who uses and abuses the public airwaves off the airwaves. Obviously, 141 sponsors of his show agree with me, as do 30,000 people who have gone online and signed my petition. I am not hanging alone out here….There’s a big difference between what is being said by Bill Maher and his humor, although I don’t find that funny, and what Rush Limbaugh does, who pretty much calls the shots in the Republican Party.”

Bill Press on his radio show: “Boy, this has me really burned up. There is a war on women going on. It’s a war on women that’s being conducted by Republicans in the House, you expect that. By Republicans in the Senate, you expect that. But, it’s also being led by the Catholic bishops of this country, which is outrageous and which is wrong. Well you might say of course the Catholic Bishops are part of the war on women, you know they won’t allow women to become priests in the Catholic Church. They won’t allow Priests to get married because there’s something wrong with living with a woman, or having sex with a woman. I mean they’ve got this anti-woman thing built into them.”

Kelly Ward, DCCC Political Director, seeking money via email: “Republicans aren’t backing down from their War on Women crusade…Republicans in Congress have already tried to give your boss the power to deny women access to birth control coverage. How much worse can the Republican War on Women get? We’re launching an urgent grassroots campaign against War on Women Republicans while they are back home in their districts this week. We’ve set a goal of raising $100,000 by tomorrow night to launch targeted advertising against anti-women Republicans…Let’s make Republicans regret they ever launched a War on Women.”

Jessica DelBalzo, an activist writer from Flemington, New Jersey: “I love abortion. I don’t accept it. I don’t view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. I donate to abortion funds. I write about how important it is to make sure that every woman has access to safe, legal abortion services. I have bumper stickers and buttons and t-shirts proclaiming my support for reproductive freedom. I love abortion.”

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu: “Well, first, [top Obama bundler] Steve Spinner was absolutely firewalled from making any decision or encouragement on what make for any loan, let alone the Solyndra loan. What he was pressing for was, after the conditional commitment was made, he was pressing to finalize things. But he was not part of the decision-making process.”

Stephen Chu, on previous remarks where he wanted our gas prices to go up: “I no longer share that view.”

Sen. Al Franken: “When I hear about the $50 light bulbs and the award given for that technology, I think of what laptops were when the first laptop came out. I mean, essentially we’re talking about mainframes – what the cost of a main frame – between now everybody who can get a laptop gets a laptop.” Except that mainframe computers and their evolution to laptops was not partially funded by taxpayers.

It’s all about racism:

David A. Wilson, executive editor of the NBC-owned black “news” website TheGrio.com:: “How can we expect and how can we be the country that is as the Republicans like to say, you know, the great shining city on the hill? And we have people who are saying all sorts of things about our President, a President that by most accounts, most accounts across the world, people are pretty proud of that he is the first African-American president. Yet, you know, the media on the right goes after him because of his race. What does that say about America to the international community? About – we’re supposed to be the ones who lead on matters of tolerance and matters of, you know, race relations, supposedly, and yet we have a huge portion of our media that goes after the president for his race.”Al Sharpton: “And does it – goes after him due to his race – but goes after it unchecked.”

Karen Finney a Democrat strategerist on MSNBC, tried to explain how Santorum won Alabama and Mississippi, given his (so-called) “anti-woman” stance: “Well… This woman vote really hurts me, I gotta say. (snickering) It’s a little painful ’cause I’m wondering if those women really heard the full message that: Yes, there is the economy, but if you’ve gotta worry about your basic health care, how are you then gonna be able to do what you need to do in terms of having a job, paying your rent, taking care of your kids. You know, I’m stunned. Uh, the only explanation that I can come up with is — and I think this would be a question I’d want to go back and ask these women. For these women: Did race — or… or, in other words, “conservative values;” that’s the code, right? — trump gender? You know, it’s still a very conservative state. The racial issues are alive and well in Alabama and Mississippi. Remember those polls that we saw where large percentage don’t believe in interracial marriage and think the president is a “Mooslem.” So clearly there is some sort of racial stuff in there, and I wonder if that — ultimately for white working women — trumps their own gender.”

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

Politico editor John Harris, when it comes to poll results that they do not like: “Well it was a story that I encouraged to be, uh, written. A lot of times stories generate, uh, from, uh, people’s, uh, rants, uh, editors’ rants, my rants, your rants…Alex Burns wrote up one of my rants which was looking at some of these polling numbers that have been out recently. You’ve mentioned them already at different times on the show already, Jim, the results from Mississippi showing a majority of Republicans think that President Obama might be Muslim. Well it’s not true, that’s just wrong. Some of the concern about how come he doesn’t do something about gas prices. Well the president can’t really control gas prices in a complicated global market. To me, some of these poll results just seem stupid. So I asked Alex Burns to, said, why don’t you do a piece that looks at the question of whether voters are stupid and a lot of the things that they say in these polls are just plain stupid and Alex warmed to the assignment and he wrote this. He actually found a number of sources from pollsters who say yeah, that’s the first thing you learn as a pollster, voters are stupid. They didn’t mean that literally, they meant that often they’re expressing their opinions in a context of ignorance, they don’t really understand the issues although they’re happy to pop off if a pollster invites them to. So you do get some results that seem stupid even if the voters themselves aren’t actually stupid…we did get a picture of Forrest Gump to accompany the story, Forrest Gump in this case representing the sort of ignorant voters out there who are saying these wacky things in polls.”

Washington Post’s Richard Cohen: “At some point while watching HBO’s absolutely smashing (and terrifying) movie “Game Change,” it occurred to me that Sarah Palin has ruined America.” And then he goes to disparage Sarah Palin based upon the content of this HBO docu-drama.

This video makes me proud to be an American. Barack Obama is the greatest? president in my lifetime. One hundred years from now when they are talking about these times and the near 2nd depression, two wars, health care problems and all the rest that has been going on they will point to one man that made the difference, Barack Obama.
TAN00N

We are so lucky to have Barack Obama. We have come so far, image what we can be done in 4 more years. Clear your mind of the hate and lies, show your voice this year? by voting Barack Obama back into office!
sirrafae

Obama12?
phanor

Amazing! I watched three times lol. Well done Mr. President?
dixonmaster

O B? A M A 2012!!
NotsoNutso

Outstanding achievement, and? remarkable progress in the shadow of political turmoil, economic crisis and military uncertainty.
Congratulations Mr. President on a historic first term in office. Your accomplishments will be recorded by historians as monumental and you will be held in the highest of esteem with all the great men who have held your office.
I believe America will be strong and healthy economically, militarily and as a leader in the worlds future as you prepare to leave office fo
cermakable

What a strong president!!?
tjazzmuzik

For the last 4 years, I walked around Seattle and? every day, saw somebody with a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache or Joker makeup.
This docu finally puts into perspective the longterm good that his “bad choices” seemed at first has really done for the better.
I turned 19 last month and make no mistake, I would have voted for this man 4 years back if I was older, I intend to keep him in office in November now.

We’re are a very lucky country that this man is in charge. FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!
572b

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney regarding the Obama movie to the press: “I thought it was superb. I’ll probably watch it many times. I hope you will, too.”

Liberal Celebrities:

Tom Hanks of Obama, in the Obama move: “He would not dwell in blame or in dreamy idealism.” From a few months ago, this is a partial list of things that Obama blames for problems during his administration. Not to worry, one person he does not blame is…Obama.

Hollywood producer and Obama bundler Harvey Weinstein: “I’m so thrilled he’s running for reelection, he’s done a fantastic job, and he’s the most underestimated president I’ve seen. He’s too humble, and his accomplishments far outweigh his esteem, but people will learn that in time.”

Tom Hanks in the Obama film: “Not since the days of Franklin Roosevelt had so much fallen on the shoulders of one president.”

Woody Harrelson, who played John McCain in Game Change: “The s__t those people [Republicans] say just makes me weep for humanity!”

Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep introducing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:”We’ve all spent a lot of time thinking about Hillary Clinton because – poor girl – she represents us, Hillary is us and we are Hillary.”

Rosie O’Donnell, filling-in for Piers Morgan: “What has happened, that we are fighting again for reproductive rights?”

Angelica Huston: “And how did guys, get to be the ones to solely discuss it? It’s absolutely astonishing to me, it’s the Dark Ages.”

Businessman, Virgin Group CEO and reality TV person Richard Branson to the president at a White House dinner: “I asked him if I could have a spiff, but they didn’t have any.”

Liberals from the past:

Before Stephen Chu became energy secretary (2007 or 2008?): “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” The idea is to reduce the demand for gas here in the United States.

Candidate Obama: from 2008: “Not only do we have to invest in mass transit, but we have also have to make sure that, we also have to make sure that people are making good decisions about cars. And their freedom–people are, you know, people are free to buy a [Chevrolet] Suburban if you want, it gets 8 miles a gallon but we can’t subsidize to make sure that you have–you are able to fill up your Suburban tank at a really cheap rate because that’s not the trajectory of oil prices worldwide.”

Senator Obama of Congressman Danny Davis: “He is one on the greatest congressmen in the country…he shares our values.” Congressman Davis, was recently the keynote speaker at a Communist Party of the USA.

Rev. Jeremy Wright: “Them Jews aren’t going to let him [Obama] talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office.”

Liberal civility:

Million dollar Obama donor Bill Maher tweet: “If Gingrich Was Any More of an A__e Santorum Would Have to Pray For The Strength Not to F__k Him” All of the words were spelled out, of course.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Speaking of prostitutes, big oil’s top call girl Sen Inhofe wants to kill fuel economy backed by automakers, small biz, enviros, & consumers.” He also accused Inhofe of treason for feeding our “addiction to oil” because it funds terrorism.

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “America is a liberal idea. How can you have in our country that is based upon liberality and liberation, be so anti-liberal. That’s toxic waste to our consciousness. It’s hard to be an American conservative because that’s a contradiction in terms. Now if you take away freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of protest, and lock people out based upon their race, their language and their religion, that’s conservative and fascist.”

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Stephanie Miller from her radio show: “Yeah I think the President got off a good one the other day didn’t he when he was talking he said `if some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail they must have been founding members of the flat earth society. They wouldn’t have believed the world was round’ Ah just in relation to the whole energy debate, correct?”

Rep. Adam Schiff: “Exactly, they would have been talking about the alleged round earth theory.”

Jim Ward, Miller’s side-kick: “I think they should test the alleged laws of gravity by jumping out of a plane without a parachute.”

Muslims and Muslim supporters:

Adam Gadahn, a U.S.-born media adviser for Al-Qaeda, about which U.S. media outlets would be best for a bin Laden anniversary video: “It should be sent for example to ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN and maybe PBS and VOA. As for Fox News let her die in her anger…From a professional point of view, they are all on one level – except (Fox News) channel, which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks objectivity, too.” More proof of how biased FoxNews is.

Germany’s Social Democratic Pary leader Sigmar Gabriel (and candidate for chancellor): “I was just in Hebron. There’s a legal vacuum there for Palestinians. This is an apartheid regime, for which there is no justification.”

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai: “Our demand is that this process [for U.S. troops to hand over all security responsibilities to Afghanistan by 2013] should be executed sharply and the responsibility should be handed over to to Afghans.”

Muslim from the grave:

Osama bin Laden boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus: “The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency…Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour and killing him would alter the war’s path [in Afghanistan.]”

Liberals being honest:

Politico’s Jim Vandehei: “Are reporters biased? There is no doubt that-I’ve worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and worked here at Politico. If I had to guess, if you put all of the reporters that I’ve ever worked with on truth serum, most of them vote Democratic.”

NPR reporter Nina Totenberg: “The elite media will then glom onto this person, and everything he has ever done that might be slightly untoward or controversial will come out.”

Leftist Bob Beckel of FoxNews, who ran Walter Mondale’s campaign (as quoted by Cal Thomas): “I managed Walter Mondale to the greatest presidential loss and now I am a political pundit—it’s a great country.” [quoted from memory]

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

A transgendered Indonesian man who was Barack Obama‘s nanny in the late 1960s: “Once he pointed to a picture of (Indonesian) President Sukarno and said `I hope I will grow up to become someone like him’. I am proud that his wish came true. And if the Barry I knew is the same Barry who is America’s number-one man, I’m sure he will accept me for the person I am, transgender or not.”

Matt Romney, son of Mitt, in Hawaii: “I was glad to come; I had to fight with my brothers to see who would come. I’m not here to talk about President Obama I think he is great. I’m here to talk about my dad and what he would bring to the country.”

Patrick Jane (Aussie Simon Baker) in the Mentalist, explaining gender differences when it comes to pushes a person’s buttons: “Men are like toasters; women are more like accordions.” This is from awhile back, but I misplaced the envelope that I wrote it on.

Moderates who should have not shared their thoughts:

Meghan McCain: “I’m not a lesbian, if that’s what you’re asking. I’d be the first person to tell the world I was gay. I’m not private about anything. I think you should live how you should live. But I’m strictly dickly. I can’t help it. I love sex and I love men.” Too bad she did not exercise an emoticon of circumspection before sharing.

Crosstalk:

11 year old Sena: “How do you respond to critics who say the government should not be telling people how to eat or to stay active?”

Michelle Obama: “You know, that’s absolutely right — and Let’s Move! doesn’t do that. Let’s Move! is not about having government telling people what to do, because government doesn’t have all the answers. I mean, a problem that’s this big and affects so many people requires everyone to step up. So we’re asking everyone to do their part. Parents have to make some changes at home, but they need the information to be able to make those choices. And they have to have access to affordable foods in their communities — fresh and healthy foods, right? We need government to do its part, but we need businesses to do their part, as well.”

Rush Limbaugh: “So, there’s Mrs. Obama: ‘No, our program doesn’t do that! No, no, no. Government doesn’t do that. It doesn’t tell people what to do. We’re asking everybody do their part. Parents have to make some changes at home, but we’re not telling people what to do. But parents have to make some changes, and businesses have to make some changes — and we gotta get good foods in your house. But we’re not telling anybody what to do.’ Right. Yeah, right.”
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Jake Tapper: Bill, thanks for doing this. I just wanted to make sure that as I cover this debate about appropriate language and such, I’m not excluding any points you think should be made.

Bill Maher: I don’t really know all the “points,” but as I said on my show last Friday, I’m a pottymouth, not a misogynist.

Tapper: So with all the criticism of Rush Limbaugh for his comments about the Georgetown Law student, conservatives claim that there’s a double standard, with President Obama, Democrats and the media far more tolerant of offensive language when wielded by liberal or progressive media figures against conservative women. Is that a fair comparison? You have certainly used offensive words to describe some politicians you don’t like.

Maher: I’m a comedian – not just a guy who says he is, like Rush, but someone who – well, you saw me do stand-up last year in D.C. There’s a big difference between just saying you’re a comedian and going out and getting thousands of people to laugh hard for 90 minutes. And the one I’m compared to most is Carlin, who also had these kind of problems. Edgy is my brand.

Tapper: How do you know when you’ve gone too far?

Maher: I let the audience be the guide. The bit I did about Palin using the word c-, one of the biggest laughs in my act, I did it all over the country, not one person ever registered disapproval, and believe me, audiences are not afraid to let you know. Because it was a routine where that word came in at just the right moment.
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Luke Russert (Tim Russet’s son): “And Bill Maher has had a lot of choice words to say about the Republicans; he specifically went after Sarah Palin with some very crude language that’s in the same sort of stratosphere of how Rush Limbaugh went after Sandra Fluke. Do you have any reservations about accepting that $1 million from Bill Maher and will you give it back? A lot of conservatives are calling that.”

Bill Burton, who runs the Obama SuperPAC that Maher donated $1 million to: “I know that Republicans have tried to use this to distract from what Rush Limbaugh said to sexually degrade a woman.”
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Hillary Clinton: “Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn’t matter what country they’re in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies. Yes, it is hard to believe but even here at home we have to stand up for women’s rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us because America needs to set an example for the entire world. ”

Katie Pavlich: “Women in the United States can vote, have children in wedlock, have children out of wedlock, get married, choose to be single, commit adultery, work, choose not to work, go outside, drive a car, take the bus, show their ankles, go shopping without their husbands, get married when they choose to not when they are forced to, leave their husbands in abusive situations, obtain justice against a rapist, change religions, protest in the street, etc. Women are not oppressed and have rights as human beings in the United States. Having someone else pay for your birth control is not a right and if they refuse to pay for it, they aren’t waging a ‘war on women.’ ”
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Lee Papa: “Who’s saying she’s hurting Obama because of the GOP‘s stance on women’s issues now. You can’t turn back the clock, and that’s what they want to do. They don’t want to conserve what exists, they want to actually turn it back.”

Stephanie Miller: “So what happens in Crackerland this week, as we like to say? We have, what, Alabama and Mississippi coming up tomorrow.”

Papa: “I think Santorum and Gingrich split the yahoos in Alabama and Romney just flat out wins Mississippi.” From WFP
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Howard Stern: Who should be the next President of the United States Elle MacPherson, go ahead.

Elle Macpherson: I think Obama’s going to do it.

Stern: You like Obama?

Macpherson: Yeah, I’m living in London and I’m socialist. What do you expect?
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Challenged by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) regarding the administration’s definition of a “food desert” which is being a mile away from a grocery store.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius: “Well, I think it’s very difficult for a family buying groceries – if they have to walk a mile with bags of groceries, it may be too far to get healthier food.”

Jay Carney on the finality of the Obama mandate for religious organizations: “The solution that was reached here . has been reached, and we firmly believe that it achieves the goals that the president set…[Obama] brought the process to a solution here that met his two objectives – to ensure that women across America . were able to get the same preventive services, including contraception services without having to pay for them, and that those who have religious objections . would not have to provide or pay.”

On Feb. 10 Obama announced a new regulation that forces religious groups to financially support activities they abhor, but that the government supports. In particular, the president directed religious organizations to provide insurance policies that offer free contraceptives.

A statement by the top-level administrative committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “…government has no place defining religion and religious ministry. If this [regulatory] definition is allowed to stand, it will spread throughout federal law, weakening its healthy tradition of generous respect for religious freedom and diversity [and] is unprecedented in federal law, which has long been generous in protecting the rights of individuals not to act against their religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

Conservatives:

Dennis Miller on the economy: “Everybody knows it’s crap.”

Cal Thomas on women voting as a monolithic block: “Anyone who thinks that women can be controlled is not married to one.” [quoted from memory]

Paula Priesse posting: “March 15th – Davis Guggenheim, maker of the Obama documentary “The Road We’ve Traveled”, wishes his 17 minute film could have been longer. Asked on CNN if there were any negatives with the project, Guggenheim responded, “The negative for me was, there were too many accomplishments”. That’s true. Just this week we’ve learned that the CBO now projects the cost of Obamacare at $1.76 trillion, up just a tad from the original $940 billion. And today, in spite of O’s solemn pledge that “you can keep your health plan”, the CBO reports that up to 20 MILLION Americans could lose their employer-provided coverage. Poor Davis, so many O “accomplishments”, so little time. P”

Paula Priesse posting: “March 13th – From Bloomberg: ‘President Obama’s re- election campaign is planning to seize upon the recent partisan bickering over health care, contraception and abortion to garner the women’s vote in the November presidential election.’ Guess O has the women’s vote so long as women don’t: 1) Drive ($3.80 avg. per gallon up from $1.81) 2) Work or have husbands who work (median income down 6.7%) 3) Buy groceries (misery index up 45%) or 4) Own a house (home values down 13%) So Bloomberg tells us O’s surefire plan to woo women is ‘Look ladies . free birth control pills!’ Good luck with that. Course if his plan does work, it’s America that will need all the luck! P”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: “Israel has never left its fate in the hands of others, not even in the hands of our best friends [the United States and Britain].”

Greg Gutfeld: “I like Gingrich, but his ego is so big that is has its own ego.”

Greg Gutfeld of Attorney General Eric Holder: “He is the Chevy Volt of Attorney Generals.”

Greg Gutfeld: “If the Catholic Church is paying for birth control, then Greenpeace needs to pay for my gas.”

Gary B. Smith tying to make the point that the inflation right now is not that bad: “The odds of me, Jonas [Max Ferras], and Susan [Ochs] all being wrong is zero.” This is a conservative, moderate and liberal on FoxNews all agreeing that inflation is not a big deal right now. I would disagree (as did most of the other conservatives on that panel).

Rush Limbaugh: “People in the know realize Barack Obama is the number one obstacle to cheap energy in this country. Don’t doubt me.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The poor are still poor. The homeless are still homeless. Despite all these great liberal programs, the numbers, the percentages never change. Liberalism doesn’t solve problems. It doesn’t fix anything. It just exacerbates them.”

Rush Limbaugh: “There is not a shortage of oil on this planet. There is not a shortage of oil anywhere. Whenever there are shortages, they are contrived and are the result of distribution channels being locked down, shipping lanes being closed, or production being shut down in oil-producing countries.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Oil is treated by the American left — by the Democrat Party, by Democrat politicians — as some almost evil invention, when it’s not. In fact, if you ask me, it’s incredible ingenuity to figure out what all we can do with oil and what it has meant to economic growth and prosperity, wealth creation, liberty, freedom. It’s amazing what has come from oil in that regard.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Do you know what the unemployment rate was in March 13th, 2006? You know what the unemployment rate was then? Take a guess. Come on, you guys! It was 4.7%. The unemployment rate when Wolf Blitzer was celebrating Bush’s ‘all-time low approval number’ was 4.7%, March 13th of 2006. Today the unemployment rate is 8.3%. The economy is in a free-fall disaster.”Rush Limbaugh: “We get some State-Controlled Media polls that look bad for Obama and they run stories, ‘Are these polls broken? Are the people in the polls stupid?’ They have what they think is the smartest, slickest, most-polished president and politician ever in the history of the country. They have total propaganda control over the media, and in their minds that means they have total control over what America thinks.”

Rush Limbaugh, on his new Twitter account: “I’m not gonna be hanging on Twitter 15 hours a day and tweeting: ‘Just had breakfast, hope you have a wonderful day. Here’s a picture of me eating some corn flakes.’ None of that stuff.”

Rush Limbaugh: “What Obama advertised was a knowing falsehood. What Obamacare and every proponent said about this was knowingly false. They knew it was going to cost more than $940 billion. They knew it because they had to delay the spending by four years to get it under a trillion dollars. They knew!”

Rush Limbaugh: “You can go back and look at any liberal social program you want. You can look at the Great Society, the War on Poverty, AFDC, food stamps — any program — and it always costs far more than what we’re told when the legislation is signed.”Conservatives from the Past:

Rush Limbaugh, from memory: “The only way Gingrich poses a threat to women is if he marries them.”

Republican Infighting:

Rick Santorum of Mitt Romney: “He has FoxNews shilling for him every day.”

8 Responses to “Say What? March 20th, 2012 Edition [Reader Post]”

Nan G

“Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians talking down these new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power and solar power.
….

No.
It is NOT a joke.
Our coverage of it is a joke but wind power is a nightmare.
The UK’s Daily Mail carries the ball when our failed media drops it:

A breathtaking sight awaits those who travel to the southernmost tip of Hawaii’s stunningly beautiful Big Island, though it’s not in any guidebook. On a 100-acre site, where cattle wander past broken ‘Keep Out’ signs, stand the rusting skeletons of scores of wind turbines.
In other parts of the U.S., working wind turbines are killing hundreds of thousands of birds and bats each year, but here the wildlife can perch on the motionless steel blades.

If any spot was tailor-made for a wind farm it would surely be here. The gales are so strong and relentless on the tip of South Point that trees grow almost horizontally.

Yet the 27-year-old Kamaoa Wind Farm remains a relic of the boom and inglorious bust of America’s so-called ‘wind rush’, the world’s first major experiment in wind energy.

At a time when the EU and the British Government are fully paid-up evangelists for wind power, the lesson from America — and the ghostly hulks on this far-flung coast — should be a warning of their folly.

So what went wrong? It started with the late Seventies oil crisis that convinced America it had to look around for other sources of power. For a time, wind power was considered to be a serious alternative to fossil fuels.

Most importantly for the scrum of investors who were thrusting their snouts into the trough, there was the extraordinary generosity of the government.

Between 1981 and 1985, federal and state subsidies were so favourable that investors could recover 50 per cent of the cost of a wind turbine.

Not to put too fine a point on it, for some wind energy investors it was simply a tax scam.

But as tends to happen with a business that is driven by financial incentives, it lasted only as long as the subsidies. In 1986, the price of oil tumbled and the subsidies started to die out. Suddenly, the wind energy sums didn’t add up any more.

With some turbine makers going out of business, there were no spare parts either.

No one who has driven past one of America’s mega wind farms today can fail to be struck by how few have blades that are turning, even in strong winds.

The truth is that even fewer may be producing electricity than it appears. Many are switched to a mode in which the blades continue to turn just to keep oil moving around the mechanism, but no electricity is produced.

Hawaii has six abandoned wind farms.

Wind power sceptics estimate 14,000 turbines across the U.S. have become derelict since the Eighties, while there are around 38,000 in operation across the country.

In Hawaii, which is soon to get a new subsidised wind farm, Andrew Walden argues that whatever turbine makers boast about their machines’ impressive kilowatt per hour output, there remains an intractable problem with any industry that can survive only with government help.

‘The key lesson from history is that when the subsidies go, the wind farms go,’ he told me. ‘It costs too much to maintain them and they just get abandoned.’

Why, Republicans in Congress ask, should the debt-laden country be giving wind energy companies a 30 per cent tax credit, costing taxpayers nearly $3 billion a year, when wind accounts for only 2.3 per cent of America’s electricity and 8 per cent of its pollution-free electricity?

gary kukis

One of the other things about wind farms ignored by most is their gargantuan size. There are nuclear reactors the size of an outhouse that can provide enough power for a large neighborhood. A wind farm to handle this same neighborhood would be about 1.5 time the size of the neighborhood.

Ivan

Are you people delusional here at FA? We have historically low usage of oil and distillates, this isn’t about supply. It is about there being greater DEMAND outside of the US, so the oil companies and refineries are shipping the REFINED PRODUCT out of our nation. The days of “excess” refined goods are over.

It’s called being intellectually honest-try it sometime. It might help.

gary kukis

And as I mentioned in Issue #220 of conservative review (from whence comes Say What?), our government does have some power over oil companies. No matter what the world market is, our government can set some conditions on the oil pumped out of federal lands. Obviously, the oil companies have to make a profit, but that can be made at below world market prices.

Whereas, I am not in favor of some sort of profits tax, when the oil comes out of federal grounds, then the federal government can have some say as to how much that oil will be sold for and whether that oil is kept inside the United States or not.

And when it comes to world demand, this is just going to increase. As countries become more prosperous, this will be accompanied by a need for gas and oil.

Westie

Bolsheviks like Ivan are unaware of the bogey man of high gas prices. GWB opened up oil harvesting offshore and in the Continental US and drove gas prices to > $2.00. Hi gas not only irritates the consumer @ the pump it also ignites inflation in every item purchased by the voting public. I see Bamako’s polls dropping quickly as the oil prices start to kick in. Watch out below…one and done for the tiny tyrant.